Athlete's Gender in Question

[brod]

Young South African women's sprinter Caster Semenya's gender has been brought in to question at the IAAF Athletics World Championships in Berlin.

The 18-year-old 800m contender is a newcomer on to the world athletics scene and has turned heads with her muscular build and traces of facial hair.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the IAAF is testing the athlete in an attempt to confirm her sex. She will undergo physical checks as well as a genetic screening.

IAAF rules are explicit in stating athletes must be entirely female to compete in women's races.

Officials were scheduled to meet overnight Tuesday Australian time, to decide whether the teenager would be able to compete in the 800m final on Wednesday.

The powerfully-built runner easily won her semi-final on Monday evening.

[rod_rooster]

She won gold. This was a quote from the IAAF Director of Communications, Nick Davies,

"It's a medical issue. It's not an issue of cheating. We're more concerned for the person not to make this something which is humiliating for her and something which is going to affect her in a negative way. This is why you will appreciate we have to be discreet. She is a human being who was born as a woman and who has grown up all her life as a woman but who is now in a position where this is being questioned."

I'd say it's a bit late to prevent this being humiliating for her I'm not exactly sure if he knows the correct definition of the word "discreet" either.

[Dirko]

I am Woman....Hear me ROAR !!

[Wedgie]

Its a really interesting and controversial can of worms being opened, she's passed the "visual test" which youd think was good enough but African nations unlike most often produce people "with a mixture of chromosonmes and both male and female characteristics". There are men, women and "Mutolas" who are neither proper men nor proper females.
Not sure how it can be handled*.

[Dogwatcher]

That was a really bizarre quote wasn't it? "then there are the Mutolas"!

[Dirko]

she's passed the "visual test"

What visual test you use?



Here's the rest of the field....

[Booney]

Semen,ya!

It's a bloke....

[Wedgie]

I might have found my dream job if they had a similar issue in tennis.
Wedgie: 'Sorry Maria, I'm not 100% sure, get your gear off and cough'

'Its OK Venus and Serena, I believe you, move along'

[ORDoubleBlues]

Leaked reports claim she is a hermaphrodite.

Hope this isn't true as shouldn't have been competing in first place if this is proven correct.

[rod_rooster]

Unfortunately the person and their feelings and sensitivities have been forgotten in this drama. The athlete will have already been significantly scarred mentally by this and these findings will only make things worse. The athlete has done nothing wrong and is unfairly being humiliated in front of the world. This is a situation where no-one wins but one person loses in a big way.

[dedja]

Unfortunately the person and their feelings and sensitivities have been forgotten in this drama. The athlete will have already been significantly scarred mentally by this and these findings will only make things worse. The athlete has done nothing wrong and is unfairly being humiliated in front of the world. This is a situation where no-one wins but one person loses in a big way.

[JAS]

Unfortunately the person and their feelings and sensitivities have been forgotten in this drama. The athlete will have already been significantly scarred mentally by this and these findings will only make things worse. The athlete has done nothing wrong and is unfairly being humiliated in front of the world. This is a situation where no-one wins but one person loses in a big way.

Couldn't agree more. I think the way this has been dealt with is a disgrace.

Surely to god the organizers knew which athletes were planning to take part in the games...if there was any doubt about her this should all have been investigated by them well beforehand.

I hope either her family or the South African authorities sue the arse off the IAAF and the media...they've given no protection whatever to a vulnerable 18 year old as far as I can see and her medical records and test results should have been kept confidential just like they are for the rest of us.

Regards
JAS

[JAS]

Not the first time the IAAF have failed to protect an athlete from public humiliation in very similar circumstances...
Regards
JAS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8250469.stm

Semenya 'must not be humiliated'

Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan fears Caster Semenya will face the same "humiliation" that she did if the South African fails a gender test.

Soundarajan was stripped of 800m silver at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a test and later attempted suicide.

The 28-year-old told BBC Radio 5 live: "It was a very bitter and humiliating experience for me.

"Sports federations should come up with a solution to this, rather than ostracising somebody."

Tests on Semenya, who won 800m gold at the world championships in Berlin last month, are likely to show that she has an "inter-gender condition", which would mean she has both male and female sex characteristics.

No matter what the result of the tests, Soundarajan believes the 18-year-old should be allowed to both keep her gold medal - which the IAAF have said she will be able to - and to continue to compete as a female.

"I would like to appeal that there should be a serious reconsideration about the way these issues are addressed," said the Indian runner, who was found to have female sex organs but also internal testes and the male XY chromosome.

"I feel the medal should be with her, not withdrawn, and I strongly feel and suggest that she should be able to continue to run. The sporting bodies should treat her with honour.

"She should not undergo the same sort of humiliation and insults I have faced. This would affect her mentally and physically and she would not be in a position to hold her head high."

Soundarajan said she was shunned by her local community after being stripped of her silver medal and banned from competing by the Indian Olympic Association.

"I am treated as a social outcast, even in my own local place," she said.

"Even this morning there was a local cycle race and I was an official. I overheard a police official who was in charge of the security talking about my gender and pointing at me saying 'this was the girl who failed the gender test'.

"It is really, really humiliating. I am unable to move in the society, to go out anywhere. People don't look upon me as an Asian Games medallist, but only speak about when I failed a gender test.

Soundarajan has been banned from competing in domestic or international races, which she says is unfair.

"To be very frank, the process of puberty has never happened to me and I have never been through the menstrual cycle," she said.

"Attaining puberty or going through the menstrual cycle alone does not categorise somebody as a female though.

"So I feel it is unfair to detriment the quality of people based on chromosomes. I feel it is unethical and biased."

[MightyEagles]

Its a really interesting and controversial can of worms being opened, she's passed the "visual test" which youd think was good enough but African nations unlike most often produce people "with a mixture of chromosonmes and both male and female characteristics". There are men, women and "Mutolas" who are neither proper men nor proper females.
Not sure how it can be handled*.

One way is to have events for men, women and for those who are neither.

[Mickyj]

This is in fact is an interesting problem .She has lived her entire life as a woman her parents thought she was a girl .And by the sounds of it her doctors have as well or am I just reading that into it.
So why wasn't this found out before now ?
And why was it handled in such a bad way by the IAAF and the media ?

You have innocent people (well we all think she is ) like this getting caught up due to genetics problems .and yet drug takers get away with cheating for years and years.

And if one goes by looks as to male or female .The Olympic swimmer and gold medal winner Inga debruin (if I have the spelling and name correct) looks a hell of a lot like a twin sister to the wrestler EDGE!!
Both have long blonde hair and a flaming big chin !!

[Mickyj]

she's passed the "visual test"

What visual test you use?



Here's the rest of the field....

Well the others look like they could all do with a good feed I wouldn't say any look like the perfect Woman .Pretty sure most would have a period if I can write that

[Wedgie]

The only really good thing to come out of this is her country seems to be right behind her and are quite protective of her (and rightfully so). So hopefully she won't have to go through too much with the support of her country.

[dsriggs]

WOW indeed...

[Swooper16]

Check out some of the other stories...Gay mormons, Aliens and adulation...looks like a ripping read..!!

[JAS]

Good to see that the SA authorities have publicly apologised and taken action against those responsible for the horrendously traumatic treatment the poor girl received. Can't begin to imagine how awful the whole business must have been for her.

Regards
JAS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/8344591.stm

South Africa's Olympic governing body has suspended Athletics South Africa's president, while the ASA has apologised to Caster Semenya over her gender row.

Semenya, 18, was embroiled in controversy after her 800m victory at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

ASA chief Leonard Chuene admitted in September he lied about whether Semenya had been gender tested before Berlin.

The ASA board and its members have also been suspended pending a disciplinary investigation into the matter.

A statement said: "Athletics South Africa wishes to publicly and unconditionally apologise to Caster Semenya and her family, the President of South Africa as well as to all South Africans for the handling of her gender verification processes and the subsequent aftermath."

Semenya burst on to the world stage when she ran one minute, 56.72 seconds for the 800m in July, smashing her previous personal best by more than seven seconds.

She also broke Zola Budd's long-standing South African 800m record before arriving in Berlin as the newly-crowned African junior champion.

The teenager then left her rivals trailing in Berlin to win by 2.5 seconds from 2007 champion Janeth Jepkosgei in a time of 1.55.45, the fastest time of the year.

On the same day, it emerged that gender tests had been carried out on Semenya earlier in August - Chuene at first denied knowledge of those tests before admitting he lied to protect Semenya.

However, former South Africa coach Wilfred Daniels told BBC Sport that the ASA kept a lot from Semenya.

He said: "She was told it was random doping tests she was being taken to in South Africa and Berlin, in the meantime it was gender verification tests.

"She was never briefed properly about her rights and the implications about the outcome of the tests.

"She was never given the opportunity to make a decision to compete or allow medical interventions that could regularise her situation.

"So those issues remained in the public domain for a very long time and brought so much trauma that I don't think she will ever be able to be a normal woman ever again, to compete on the top tracks of the world and be accepted as a bona fide woman competitor."

Meanwhile, the ASA has also acknowledged the criticism it received from South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, which set up a task force to look into the ASA's handling of the affair.

The ASA statement added: "Athletics South Africa has taken note of the African National Congress Caster Semenya Support Task Team media statement issued on 16 October relating to Caster Semenya and the gender verification tests conducted on her.

"ASA appreciates the ANC's position on this matter, fully welcomes and accepts without any reservations the findings and recommendations of the task team."

South Africa's Olympic governing body, SASCOC, says it is considering "taking appropriate action against the IAAF for its disregard of Semenya's rights to privacy".